Edinburgh Monarchs sealed their place in the semi-final of the Knockout Cup despite a maximum for Glasgow Tigers star Broc Nicol in the tense second-leg at Ashfield.
Tigers faced having to overturn a 16-point deficit following Friday’s first-leg defeat at Armadale and Glasgow pulled it to within six points after eight races as the momentum began to build behind the West of Scotland outfit.
But, despite two further 5-1s and Nicol sealing a paid four-ride maximum, a third engine failure for former Edinburgh captain, Craig Cook in Heat 10, ultimately proved too costly and they missed out by just two points on aggregate despite a 52-38 win on the night.
Cami Brown (pictured), Tigers’ team manager, admitted his side left themselves with too much to do after Friday but bemoaned their “bad luck”.
He said: “I’m not going to make any excuses. I thought the team really tried from beginning to end, but we had no luck whatsoever.
“Craig had three engine failures in his first three heats – and you saw on his second bike he wins his last two heats. But we didn’t have the leeway [in the scoreline]. Broc got his first maximum for Glasgow, he was wonderful.
“Danyon Hume had two brilliant wins. He had an unlucky loss in his third race and I couldn’t take him out of his fourth ride, he deserved his chance.
“Tom Brennan held the team together when Craig was struggling and I thought Ulrich Ostergaard was a bit improved tonight. Ben Basso also came up with a big win in heat 14 and Connor Bailey did well, so there are some positives.”
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